Tag Archives: war crimes

“An Argentine court sentenced 48 former military personnel to prison on Wednesday for involvement in so-called ‘death flights’ and other crimes committed at a notorious torture center when a junta ruled the country. The trial is part of an effort to probe torture and crimes against humanity committed at the ESMA Naval Mechanics School. Only a fraction of an estimated 5,000 opponents of the regime, which ruled from 1976-1983, survived being sent there. … Among those who received life [sentences] were Mario Daniel Arru and Alejandro Domingo D’Agostino, two ex-pilots convicted of involvement in ‘death flights’ in which people were killed by being thrown out of airplanes into the Rio de la Plata or the sea.” (11/30/17)

“A convicted Bosnian Croat war criminal declared his innocence — and then imposed his own death penalty. Ex-general Slobodan Praljak slugged down a fatal dose of poison Wednesday in a Netherlands international court where he was sentenced to 20 years in prison for murder and other crimes during the early ’90s civil war. ‘I reject your verdict!’ the 72-year-old Praljak declared before draining the lethal liquid from a small bottle during a live feed of the sentencing. ‘I am not a war criminal!’ Gasps filled the United Nations court in The Hague, Netherlands, with Praljak declaring the bottle held poison and Judge Carmel Agius quickly suspending the hearing. Praljak died a short time later at a nearby hospital in The Hague, shortly after Agius confirmed his sentence of 20 years for war crimes.” (11/29/17)

“Israeli soldiers on Tuesday shot and killed a Palestinian driver who the military said attempted to run over them near a West Bank settlement. The Palestinian driver, 26-year-old Muhammad Abdallah Mussa from the West Bank village of Deir Ballut, was seriously wounded and taken to the Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikva, after receiving initial medical treatment on the scene. He later died of his wounds. Mussa’s sister, Latifa Abdullah, 33, who was also in the car, was wounded by the gunfire. Israeli medical sources said she was evacuated by car to Ramallah. The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said that Israeli forces prevented them from treating her.” (10/30/17)

“Russia on Sunday accused the US-led coalition in Syria of having flattened Raqa with a Dresden-like bombing campaign and masking the destruction with a rush of humanitarian aid. In a statement, the defence ministry said that Raqa — the capital of the Islamic State group’s self-proclaimed caliphate — ‘inherited the fate of Dresden in 1945, razed to the ground by Anglo-American bombings.’ US-backed Kurdish-led forces last week recaptured Raqa, the capital of IS’s self-proclaimed caliphate and its last major stronghold in Syria. US officials hailed the event, led by President Donald Trump who, using another acronym for IS, said ‘the end of the ISIS caliphate is in sight.'” (10/22/17)

“United Nations-mandated investigators said Wednesday that Syrian President Bashar Assad’s air force conducted a sarin-gas attack in the spring that killed at least 83 civilians and sparked a retaliatory US strike. The investigators also appealed to the US-led coalition to better protect civilians as it strikes at Islamic State militants in the east. … Syrian government officials have denied responsibility, and said last month that they would allow in UN teams to investigate.” (09/06/17)

“The U.S.-led coalition said Wednesday it may strike a convoy of IS militants that evacuated the Lebanon border headed toward eastern Syria under a controversial agreement brokered by Hezbollah. Coalition spokesman Col. Ryan Dillon told The Associated Press the coalition has already struck a small bridge and punched a crater in a road to keep them from moving further east toward the border with Iraq. ‘We are monitoring their location in real time,’ he said, adding that the coalition ‘will not rule out strikes against IS fighters being moved.’ … The IS militants were allowed to evacuate the area in buses following a Hezbollah-negotiated deal that allows them to go to IS-held territory near the Iraqi border. Dillon said ‘we are not party to any agreements that were made by the Lebanese Hezbollah and ISIS or the (Syrian) regime.'” (08/30/17)

“Syrian state media, opposition activists and an outside monitoring group say U.S.-led coalition airstrikes on the northern city of Raqqa have killed dozens of civilians. U.S.-backed Syrian opposition fighters have been trying to capture the city from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) since June 6, and have been marching under the cover of airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition. The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) now hold more than half of Raqqa, the de facto capital of ISIS.” (08/22/17)

“One common objection to the Nuremberg trials was that they gave bad incentives to future war criminals. If war criminals know they’ll be tried and executed if they lose, self-interest urges them to fight to the bitter end. From this perspective, the trials were short-sighted. They satisfied the impulse for revenge, but extended the duration of future wars. On reflection, however, that’s only a medium-run view. The apostle of credibility could easily retort, ‘Yes, the Nuremberg trials encourage future war criminals to fight to the bitter end. But they also discourage future leaders from committing war crimes in the first place. We should take a truly long-run view.’ In politics, the masses are highly impulsive. They favor whatever feels good at the moment; medium- and long-run effects are usually too dull and remote to contemplate. Elites, however, often want to claim the mantle of credibility — and deride their opponents’ short-sightedness.” (08/15/17)

“Five decapitated civilians were found in a Philippine city occupied by Islamist rebels on Wednesday, the military said, warning the number of residents killed by rebel ‘atrocities’ could rise sharply as troops retake more ground. The discovery of the five victims among 17 bodies retrieved would be the first evidence that civilians trapped in besieged Marawi City have been decapitated during the five-week stand by militants loyal to the Islamic State group, as some who escaped the city have previously reported. Some 71 security forces and 299 militants have been killed and 246,000 people displaced in the conflict, which erupted after a failed attempt on May 23 to arrest a Filipino militant commander backed by Islamic State’s leadership.” (06/28/17)

“On April 6, United States President Donald Trump authorized an early morning Tomahawk missile strike on Shayrat Air Base in central Syria in retaliation for what he said was a deadly nerve agent attack carried out by the Syrian government two days earlier in the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhoun. Trump issued the order despite having been warned by the U.S. intelligence community that it had found no evidence that the Syrians had used a chemical weapon. … Some American military and intelligence officials were especially distressed by the president’s determination to ignore the evidence. ‘None of this makes any sense,’ one officer told colleagues upon learning of the decision to bomb. ‘We KNOW that there was no chemical attack … the Russians are furious. Claiming we have the real intel and know the truth … I guess it didn’t matter whether we elected Clinton or Trump.'” (06/25/17)

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